Every Story Begins With A Name
by Soloros
Summary: This is a retelling of the events of Final Fantasy VII told through Cloud's point of view.


((I'm back from the dead, sorry it's been so long. Got lost in the LifeStream. I thought I'd throw this up for you guys until I get the next part of Touching Destiny up and running. I wrote this a while ago and have now decided to put it up so people don't think I've died or forgotten. Thanks for all your patience. Of course, all characters and events are copyright SquareSoft.))

Sometimes I don't know who I am.

It's not that I don't remember things, I just feel so divided sometimes. Like my body has two souls living in it, like sometimes someone else is talking to me. I must be crazy, right? I don't tell anyone these things, because that's not very fitting of someone with my experience. My name is Cloud Strife. SOLDIER, 1st Class. I've been all over the world, seen all kinds of wonders and horrors that most people could never even dream of. Well, that used to be my life anyways. These days I'm more small-time. I left SOLDIER about a year ago and since then have been staying under the radar from them here in Midgar. Right under their noses. Just because SOLDIER is powerful doesn't mean it has the brains to match, most of the time.

I've lived off small jobs here and there, I'm really more of a mercenary these days. But when you flaunt to people that you were a 1st Class SOLDIER, and you still decided to leave… that usually piques their interests. This was so interesting to certain people, that I had been hired to do something a little crazier than protecting cargo or houses.

Tonight I was blowing up a Mako Reactor.

For a hefty fee, of course.

The train sailed endlessly through the darkness, getting closer and closer to the Sector Seven Reactor's Train Station, like a cat stalking through the grass toward its prey. We were stalking too, atop the round train's roof. No one would see us, the train was tall and it was too dark to discern people from pieces up here. I wasn't even entirely sure where the others were in front of me. We each crouched low to avoid the metal pipes and out cropping overhead and jutting out from the walls. Five of us in all, the constant roar and groans of the metal beast on its tracks were soothing and helped me concentrate. My name is Cloud Strife, SOLDIER 1st Class.

Suddenly, we rounded a corner at high speed and immediately began to slow, as a horrible screeching and scratching noise the color of dirty water went with the sparks on the tracks and the whistle of warning from the conductor. We were approaching the station of the Sector Seven Reactor. Show time.

A squealing halt, and the platform sat below me. My pulse began to race, my palms sweat. I reached my right hand back to grasp the handle of my Buster Sword. The massive sword had seen me through everything, from Wutai ninja to the smallest of thugs. Don't fail me now. The station was well lit by high overhead lights, illuminating the bare metal platform and walls in an eerily bright glow. From the door way at the far north end of the platform two guards in red emerged to check the train. They talked loudly, not suspecting a thing. Their voices lit the platform as much as the lights, and just when they got close; he gave the signal.

Two figures flew from the train top down to platform and landed in front of the Red Guards. Before they could say a word, the train jumpers had smashed them hard in the stomach, causing them to keel over without a word. The man and woman waved to us, and a rotund man the shape of a balloon literally rolled over the edge of the train gracelessly and flopped onto the platform. The man already there moved to help him, and my final accomplice leapt from the train top. His large black body sailed through the night, and he landed hard on the platform; more due to his massive bulk than a graceless landing. He wasn't round like the other, he was massive: nearly the size of a double-door, and just as tall. All muscle, which is probably why he can tote that machine gun attached to his left wrist where a hand should be. He says nothing, but furiously waves his hand at me before he dashes through the doorway at the far end of the platform after the others. Just the way I like it, they don't care about me and I don't care about them.

I run to the end of the train and leap high into the air, my landing will be flawless. I can already see myself running down the platform and through the door. That's what they teach you in SOLDIER: See what you're going to do before you do it, almost like you already have. But wait, what's this…?

Two Blue-clad Guards dash down the platform towards me. How did they miss the others? No matter. Slam to the ground, sword out.

They've picked the wrong Ex-SOLDIER to mess with.

Dash down the platform towards them, they fire at me blindly. Not even bothering to aim, just praying they hit something, anything. But they can't hit me! A few feet from the pair I let out a massive slash with my blade and they fall dead to the platform. Something glints from the pouches at their hips… I reach down and retrieve a potion from each of them. A little bonus to go with my pay.

A stroll through the door and one corridor later I'm dumped into a large square room with no roof except for the night sky. The others are waiting… except for the large black man. "What the hell'd I tell you fools?! Don't move as a group!" Oh, there he is.

Without a word the other three move to the metal door before us, and the girl starts to enter a code into the computer attached to her hip. The skinny man turns to me and says, "Hey, sorry I didn't catch your name back on the train."

I stare for a moment. Part of me considers not answering and just ignoring him. A very large part of me considers that. He beings to shift uncomfortably and I break, "…Cloud. I'm Cloud," I say.

He smiles broadly and holds out his hand, "Good to have you Cloud! I'm—"

"I don't really care who you are. Once this job's over, I'm out of here."

His face falls slowly and his hand lowers. He's not used to such a response, I can tell.

"Introductions don' matter right now, Wedge!" the muscular man growls. Then he goes on, "Jesse! Hurry the hell up with that door!"

The girl nods and the fat man begins to fidget nervously. I glance to him, not sure whether to be encouraging or tell him to calm the hell down. I'm beat to the punch when the leader calls, "Biggs, I swear if you don't shut up…!"

"Eep! Sorry Barret!" the fat man squeaks.

"Got it," Jesse whispers as the door slides silently open. We five dash through…

Right as the alarm sounds.

Red lights replace white, yellow neon-sign of alert begin to flash, and a horrible drone echoes through the area. Damnit!

This isn't going to end well, is it?

"Move! It's time to get our asses out of here! Our window of time just got a helluva lot smaller!" Barret yells as he ushers the group through the door, almost leaving me behind until he turns back and says, "You. I don't trust yer spikey ass. Yer with me."

"I don't need you to-" I begin, but am cut off with him firing behind me at two guards who have stepped around the corner.

"C'mon!" he says once more, and as instructed I grudgingly follow.

He runs a head of me down two more open metal corridors. The pipes and lights on the walls start to all blend together as we dash further and further onwards, until we catch the rest of the group again in yet another metal square. If one thing is true, it's that ShinRa doesn't do well with decoration; or at least variety.

"Did anyone run into any resistance?" Barret barked at the group.

"Nothing at all, I think they're still dispatching SOLDIERS and Guards, but none have arrived yet," Biggs replies with a gesture of his hand.

Jessie is already working on hacking the door again with her computer device, and I turn to watch the tunnel we just came through, one hand on my sword; ready to strike. I feel something… like my gut telling me that any minuet a group of red clad guards will turn the corner and open fire on us. This feeling unnerves me, and I bring my massive sword to the ready, just to be safe.

…..

Nothing.

…Nothing.

Still nothing.

Then the door Jessie is working on slides open and we move through as a group, with Barret sweeping the room one more time with his gun-arm just to be safe, and we press on. But as we do, I can't help but notice the large shadow of what looks like a scorpion as the doors slide shut behind us. For a moment I consider saying something, but decide against it. I mean, how practical is a giant robot scorpion anyways? And besides, I could take it myself. Another silent dash down another corridor and we are on a set of catwalks high over the reactor and slums below. Suddenly from Jessie's computer, a large amount of static bursts, followed by orders from some higher up to find us and kill us on sight. Some other scared voice asks if the "Ex-SOLDIER" is here. I smirk to myself after hearing this. _They're afraid of me?_ But from a darker part of me, the "other" part of me, I make another conjecture: _Or do they mean… the man in the black coat?_ I shake the thought from me head, they can't mean him. He's dead. I... know it for a fact. During this thinking, my body has been on auto-pilot, following Biggs in front of me. But now we are at an elevator, and Barret rushes with Jessie and I inside, telling Biggs and Wedge to keep watch. A curt nod from them, and Jessie pushes the button to take us down into the bowels of the reactor itself.

"Cloud? What did you used to do before this?" Jessie inquires as the drop continues.

Before I can say anything, Barret slams his fist against one of the walls, narrowly missing a console, and seethes, "Ain't no time for chattin'. We got shit to do. Concentrate!"

"R-right, sorry Barret," Jessie stammers in response.

The rest of the journey is nothing special, we run into a squad of Guards, leap a broken cat-walk, and leave Jessie at the top of a long ladder as Barret and I climb down to the final catwalk where the controls for the reactor reside. The platform we're now on is not wide by any means, as Barret and I can barely walk side-by-side on it, but it is long: as long as an airship, and sitting high above a vat of raw Mako from the planet. Barret reaches the controls first, and turns to glare hard at me. Awkward silence ensues, as the sirens blare above. "Well, get to it!" He growls.

"Shouldn't you do this?"

"I gotta stand watch and make sure you don' pull nothin'!"

"Fine," I say, taking the explosive from his outstreatched hand and beginning to rig it to the panels of the reactor controls.

Ten seconds later, and it's done. No problem for a SOLDIER 1st Class, I did stuff like this all the time. But quietly, I hear something, like a _tink tink_ of metal on metal. I glance up…

"Move!" I yell as Barret and I run a ways back towards the ladder up the catwalk. If we had been a moment slower, that giant robo scourpion would have crushed us both. Not missing a beat, it turns to us and brings up the two gatling guns it has instead of hands. "No choice, we've gotta fight it!" Barret yells, with what looks like a grin on his face.

Before I have a chance to bring my sword around, he's firing on it madly, and it staggers slightly. It brings it's guns back to the ready, and fires at the are around our feet. Barret moves closer, never letting up his steady stream of bullets, and I jump back. I remember something suddenly, and twirl my sword back into its sheath on my back and bringing myself into a ready stance, hand held out in front of me like I'm about to fire an energy beam. Quietly I whisper, "Thunder," and I feel the materia on my bracer glow slightly, as a large bolt of lightning shoots out of nowhere above the robot's head, and catches it right down the middle. I can see the damage was critical, and ShinRa may have armed this to the tail with weapons, but apparently skimped out on armor. This would be an easy fight.


End file.
